Cambodia Investment Review
The inaugural ASEAN Startup Connect (ASC) summit concluded last week at Koh Pich and the American University of Phnom Penh, marking a decisive shift in how the region approaches digital transformation.
Hosted in partnership with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC), the Mission of Japan to ASEAN, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT), the summit moved beyond the standard “success story” narratives. Instead, it brought together the entire ecosystem, from deep-tech founders to institutional bankers to dissect the operational realities of the ASEAN-Japan economic corridor.
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While most conferences focus on projections, ASC focused on the execution, information and empathy gaps that exist between founders , financiers and the market.
A Diverse Lineup Of Industry Heavyweights
The summit featured a diverse lineup of industry heavyweights who addressed this gap from two distinct sides sharing their candid realities of scaling across fragmented borders:
- Sopheakmonkol Sok (CEO, Codingate) and Natalja Rodionova (Founder, IT Step) discussed the “Trust Gap” and cultural friction of selling to different markets in ASEAN and Japan.
- Ahmad Fathi (Founder, Fatih Aquaculture) and Indra Sopian (CEO, BETA-UAS) exposed the logistical and regulatory walls of deploying physical deep-tech infrastructure across Brunei and Indonesia.
Crucially, the summit brought the money to the table to explain why capital often stalls.
- Alex Firestine (Investment Fellow, EMIA) dismantled the hype around fundraising, detailing the specific operational hygiene factors that institutional investors look for before writing a check.
- Ratana Phurik-Callebaut (Board Director, ACLEDA Bank) and Georgina Garcia (Timor-Leste National Communication Authority) argued that trust is an asset class. They emphasized that without rigorous governance and financial standards, startups remain “un-investable” regardless of their technology.
“We didn’t come here to celebrate easy wins; we came to solve the ‘messy middle’ of scaling,” said Galeno Chua, Director of ASEAN Startup Connect. “We often fail because we build strategies from the wrong starting place. If we aren’t honest about where we actually are, our roadmap will inevitably fail. The feedback from our delegates confirms that the ecosystem is hungry for this honesty. We are rejecting the ‘fail fast and break things’ model in Asia. Our financiers, consumers and even the workforce find this wasteful … this is not to our values, instead we are focusing on building useful, delightful products rooted in empathy and purpose.”
AI-Driven Synthesis With Deep Human Facilitation
To bridge these gaps, the summit debuted a proprietary session format using ai and empathy methodologies using Optomize.io.
This was voted by delegates as the most valuable activity of the event, these sessions were designed to break the polite surface-level conversation common at international forums. Combining AI-driven synthesis with deep human facilitation, the roundtables created a “safe harbor” for radical honesty.
Policymakers, investors, and founders worked in mixed groups to identify the specific “Unspoken Barriers” to growth, ranging from visa policies to the lack of standardized credit scoring for MSMEs.
As one delegate noted in the post-event impact survey:
“The roundtable conversation was the most valuable part. The guided facilitation encouraged honest reflection and helped us explore each topic with more depth… giving us a clear sense of direction.”
The summit culminated in the launch of the ASEAN Startup Connect Platform, witnessed by H.E. Dr. Visothy So, Secretary of State at MPTC, and Mr. Masato Yonai, Second Secretary of the Mission of Japan to ASEAN.
The platform serves as the digital continuation of these roundtable discussions, offering a localized knowledge hub and cross-border trade tools to ensure the connections made at the summit translate into measurable economic activity.
ASEAN Startup Connect has proven its ability to convene the region’s serious builders and decision-makers. We are now inviting corporate partners and sponsors to join the next phase of this initiative.
Organizations looking to position themselves at the intersection of Policy, Innovation, and Capital, and gain direct access to this high-value network are encouraged to reach out.
For partnership inquiries and the full post-event report, please visit aseanstartupconnect.org.
